Over the last few weeks since my wife gave me a Betta for Valentines day, I have learned a lot about Betta fish care and I thought I would share with you what I have learned. Turns out that a Betta Fish can require more time and care than you might think.
Bettas come from tropical areas in Asia. Like Thailand and Malaysia. Two male bettas should never be placed in the same tank unless you have a divider. The male Bettas tend to have the large colorful fins whereas the females will have smaller fins.
If two male Bettas share one aquarium they may very well fight to the death. In the wild however, bettas do not fight to the death. They will fight till there is a winner for the territory. The loser will go off and hide, or jump to another area to find safety (which is why bettas should always be in covered tanks, but still have access to air). In small tanks, there is no where to hide, thus leading to deaths.
Like lots of other people I have been told through friends and pet store employee’s that Betta fish like and flourish in small aquariums or fish bowls. It turns out that this could not be further from the truth! Bettas, especially those kept in smaller bowls need to have 25% of their water changes twice a week along with full bowl changes weekly. This was my biggest reason for getting a larger aquarium with an adjustable flow water filter. You want a slow flow filter so that the water current produced by the filter does not over power your Betta.
When you first get your Aquarium you want to clean it out, along with anything else you plan to put into it (rocks, plants, or ornaments) with warm to hot water. There seems to be some debate on the internet about how you should go about cleaning aquariums and the items you put into it, but I have found warm to hot water does the job for my single male Betta.
Feeding Bettas can also start a debate online it seems. I would like to share with you what I have found that works. Bettas have a lot of personality and they will beg for food. I feed my Betta fish twice a day. Two pellets of Betta fish food. Once or twice a week I will substitue the pellet food with bloodworms. You can get bloodworms at your pet store. Just thaw them out in something like a shot glass with water. I use tweezers to pick out two bloodworms (one at a time) and feed them to my Betta. It seems Betta fish like a variety of food and my Betta enjoys his bloodworm meals.
I hope you find this information useful. Have you discovered any tips or tricks to take care of your Betta? Please leave a comment and let me know!
